I have a Cat E120B and I confirmed with caterpillar service that I need "30 weight" oil for the final drives. Does that mean 30 Weight transmission oil, powertrain oil, or engine oil? Some equipment is designed to take specific oils, so I'm wondering if using gear oil would harm soemthign designed for 30wt, or vice versa. The manual for my mini komatsu says to use 30wt engine oil in the finals, and I just drained them and they smell like gear oil. I just want to do things right - advice? Examples of oil I should use?
30 wt oil for the finals doesn't really make a difference what kind you use. Additive packages in oils wont hurt anything because its just gears and bearings. I would use what you have or buy the cheapest 30w. Remember, the wrong oil is better than no oil.
Thanks Lee - I found "TO-4 caterpillar final drives" on the 30wt "powerdrive" oil I bought, so that alleviates my concerns. I'm new to this, so when experts disagree, I don't know who to trust. My main advisor only said 'the good stuff' goes in there.
have the same question about this too
What they're referring to used to be called a straight weight mineral oil or used to be series one engine oil. This was what used to be put in engines, no additives at all. Not used in engines for 60 or 70 years and impossible to find except as packaged by equipment companies like Cat and sold as final drive oil. I'm sure it's some better than the old stuff anyway.
Castrol TFC430, Caltex 434, transmission oil
Just as a point of interest, if anyone needs an old fashioned straight 30w engine oil for anything, Cat still sell it. They call it "special application engine oil". It goes in MUI 1.1 and 1.2 marine engines. Not to be confused with the TDTO 30, used in transmissions and final drives.
I used gearoil on my final drive on my cats, so far no problem.
Napa also markets 30 wt. detergent engine oil.I use it in my 4 banger air cooled Wisconsin engine in my old Royer topsoil screener.